Criminal Proceedings offers a comprehensive view of some of the most important developments in crime fiction. The contributors explore the significant new directions which the genre has recently taken and examine their importance in terms of American cultural self-definition as they tap into contemporary concerns about place, identity, gender, race, oppression and justice.
In particular, the contributors focus on the ways in which new multicultural perspectives are now challenging the predominantly white, male tradition. The work of some of America's best crime writers are examined, including Patricia Cornwell, James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosely and Barbara Wilson. The proliferation of sub-genres, such as court and police procedurals, is also examined. Criminal Proceedings is a fascinating survey of one of the liveliest and most distinctively American of literary genres.
1. Introduction: From Private Eye to Police Procedural - The Logic of Contemporary Crime Fiction by Peter Messent
2. Criminal Suits: Style and Surveillance, Strategy and Tactics in Elmore Leonard by Barry Taylor
3. Black Noir: Race and Urban Space in Walter Mosley's Detective Fiction by Liam Kennedy
4. V. I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone and Kay Scarpetta: The Creation of a Feminist Detective Hero by Sabine Vanacker
5. The Lesbian Thriller: Transgressive Investigations by Paulina Palmer
6. Policing the Margins: Barbara Wilson's Gaudi Afternoon and Troubles in Transylvania by Christopher Gair
7. Reading the Signs: Detection and Anthropology in the Work of Tony Hillerman by David Murray
8. The Last Good Place; James Crumley, the West and the Detective Novel by John Harvey
9. James Ellroy, Los Angeles and the Spectacular Crisis of Masculinity by Josh Cohen
10. Law Crimes: The Legal Fictions of John Grisham and Scott Turow by Nick Heffernan
11. Watching the Detectives: Body Images, Sexual Politics and Ideology in Contemporary Crime Film by Brian Jarvis
Selected
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
